I understand Unity already has a sky-high pre-IPO valuation, but is it possible for individuals to somehow invest in the company at this stage?
I’m fully expecting this thread to be closed or locked, but there is no other place in the forums for this.
Does Unity expect to go public? Any users have thoughts?
Are you exceptionally wealthy? Because the answer is the same.
Let’s say I am. The question remains. Also, what about the rest of the post?
Then yes, you could probably approach them as a venture capitalist of some variety.
There is no news about this.
It’s only good if you’re an investor, not a user.
Yes I’m sure it is possible.
Though I’m certain the owners of Unity will only consider those who are well funded and experienced in this kind of investment. The fact you’re asking this question on a public forum says you lack at least one of those.
< puts ten bucks on the table. I’m ready.
According to Crunchbase, Unity Technologies has raised $1.3 Billion in funding over 8 rounds of funding. I don’t know how reliable Crunchbase is but that should give you an idea of how “exceptionally wealthy” you would need to be.
throws a queen-high straight flush on the table, half of them are coming from the sleeve
Oh, this is not that game? Sorry.
Well that gives clues about possible total valuation and how rich you’d need to be to buy the whole thing outright. In practice I assume that to have got in on these investment rounds in the past, you just need enough wealth to be able to access/join in with the sort of investment vehicles that participated in those funding rounds.
I dont know much about that world, but I would assume that if an IPO is planned, there wont be further investment rounds before then, so there is no opportunity to get in on the action. But maybe you could get in on the action indirectly, by investing in one of the entities that already invested in Unity.
I would think it would be beneficial for most people to wait till its offered publicly anyway. Less hurdles ie much lower barrier to entry, much more information about revenue and operations. And the opportunity to wait and see how markets view this sort of business and whether they think its initial share price was under or overvalued, whether the initial offering was oversubscribed.
Basically the only way you are getting in right now is as a multi million dollar venture capitalist.
If the company goes to IPO any smuck with the price of a share can get in. (This is still a big if, there has been no official hints that an IPO is planned, ever. Many companies stay privately owned. And there is a good argument that a relatively niche company like Unity should stay private.)
Cool. Well, I can’t but I know some people who could 
Thing is, I’m excited for them to IPO. I think it will be a great stock to buy when it’s public. Thanks for not flaming me (that’s what I was expecting)
I really, really dont want the engines development and direction of the company to be dictated by individuals who likely have no experience using the engine and dont really relate to the actual users (I am talking about the investors it would bring in who would have some degree of control).
I am not saying that will 100% happen if it goes IPO but it is my worry.
I agree. Unity overall has been on a good track, they have done well with expanding the community through free offerings and been very fair with license pricing. I would expect a lot more pressure put on free users to monetize them if they went public, due to needing to constantly show quarter over quarter growth.
As a private company it is a lot easier for them to keep from short term cash grabs in favor of long term growth and goodwill.
You can invest $20K or more through secondary offering sites such as EquityZen which just closed a deal.
Oh, is that all?
Free users are already monetized via the Asset Store and Learn (which is increasingly gamified and monetized these days).
That’s like… tin foil hat level of BS.
You’re paying actual developers of assets, not UT itself.
Small percentage excluded, but then again, every online distribution store takes % of sales.
Learn - its just courses. Premium ones are on the same level as Udemy (I think?, might be cheaper, haven’t checked that)
Soooo yeah.
If I only could have invested in Unity in 2005 when I first started using it, I’d be set for life.
Bitcoin in that case might’ve been a better alternative.